51
Soon, Julia only had a few days left with them, and nights, though Aurelia wasn’t sure how willingly she’d leave. It was a little startling then, when—as she was writing in the shop one afternoon—Julia announced that she’d figured out why the characters had appeared for her.
“It sort of dawned on me as I’ve been talking to them this week. All the conversations we’ve had have been about marriage. Who married who, who wanted to marry who, who could or couldn’t marry who.”
“Who married whom,” Aurelia couldn’t help interjecting.
“Right,” Julia continued, untroubled by her mistake. “They didn’t go to university, they don’t have jobs. They all live in small towns and hardly ever leave home.”
“All true.”
“What do they even talk about with their friends?”
Aurelia thought for a moment. “Well, I’m sure they read quite a bit—there’s no television or internet, so they have to find their entertainment somewhere. Books, newspapers, and magazines would give them news and stories to talk about with friends.”
“Mmm,” Julia said, unconvinced.
“You’ve finished Cranford, right?”
“Yup.” Julia nodded.
“Then you know the characters were constantly talking about what was happening in their friends’ and families’ lives. Sometimes it was gossip or a serious conversation, but they found plenty of things to talk about.”
“Still… it wasn’t much, was it? Their worlds were kind of small.”
“They were,” Aurelia agreed. “In Cranford, it was a big deal for Peter to travel to India. His family really might never have seen him again, and the post wasn’t very reliable given the distance.”
“I think that’s what they were supposed to show me,” Julia said, her voice firm. “You were saying it before, back at Granddad’s—that I should go to university and not just plan on running the shop.”
Aurelia nodded, trying not to let her surprise show.
“I should study and travel, maybe even do something else for a while, so that when the shop is mine, I’ll have something to talk about with the characters. I’ll have lived a little before I’m here for good.”
A smile overtook Aurelia’s face. Julia, still so much a child at fourteen, had suddenly grown by a leap overnight.
“I think that sounds like an excellent plan. I bet Cuff would say you’ve cracked it.”
“I guess we can put their books away now… But I’m only here for a few more nights. Should I just leave them out until I go?”
“Why don’t we have one final night with everyone tonight so you can tell Cuff what you’ve figured out and say goodbye to them?”
“That’s a good idea. But won’t the others want to know what I discovered? I can’t really tell them I don’t think they have much going on in their lives.”
“No… But you could tell them they helped you decide to make the most of your life before you take over the shop. Mrs. Jamieson would probably be happy to think that means you might marry some wealthy catch instead of becoming a shopkeeper.”
Julia snorted out a laugh.
“I wonder…” Aurelia began. “After tonight, what if I take the books off the table and put them back again? Maybe you can meet the characters that came out before you got here—Lizzy, Darcy, Jane, and the rest.”
Julia’s face brightened. “Do you think that’ll work? That they’ll come out again?”
“I think it might. You’ll see—you’ll start to get a feel for how things work around here.”
“With Sergeant Cuff’s help,” Julia said, her eyebrow cocked in a teasing gesture.
“Definitely. I’m sure that’s not the last time we’ll need to call on him,” Aurelia said with a grin.